Many people are familiar with luggage-related difficulties that are associated with air travel. Carriages may be hard to find, or they may not be large enough for the luggage. At luggage pick-up zones, passengers crowd around conveyer belts, blocking each other's view, and interfering with each other's attempt to retrieve their belongings. Most annoying, sometimes a passenger may be flying to one destination, while his or her piece of luggage is sent to another.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,639 to Yamazaki, “Baggage Receiving and Handling Method in Airport, and Baggage Automatic Handling Apparatus,” 1998, describes an airport baggage receiving, identifying and handling method. The method includes providing identification information of the passenger and the baggage separately and with respect to each other when the passenger checks in. The method further includes storing a result of a baggage security check, retrieving the baggage security check results, conveying the baggage security check result to the passenger, and forwarding the baggage after the baggage security check is satisfied. As a result, only baggage that has satisfied the security check is forwarded to a storing section. However, a disadvantage of this system is that it provides a baggage handling method only for part of the baggage route, from the point of check-in to the storing section at the arrival terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,239 to Turner et al., “Identification and Telemetry System,” 1997, describes a method of automatically identifying articles such as baggage or carrier cargo by electronically coded labels to aid in the sorting and handling operations. However, this method does not reduce the hardship of the passengers, in handling their baggage in the airport.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,607 to Malavenda, “High Volume Method and System for Dynamically Storing Articles for Sorting and Routing,” 1980, describes a method and system for transporting, coding and dynamically storing articles between a check-in station and a coding station. It also describes a dynamic storage method for automatically storing articles on a conveyor system. As in the previous patents, this patent does not offer a solution to the whole baggage route and to baggage handling at the destination airport.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,435 to Szendrödi “Baggage-Handling System for Airport,” 1983 describes a baggage-transportation system for airports, having a plurality of check-in stations and a plurality of arrival stations and a network of conveyers and tracks. The system includes a network of conveyors or tracks which have paths parallel to one another, generally in the direction of passengers and baggage movement, as well as transverse tracks or paths. The passengers meet with the system after preflight inspection, document check and weight determination at a check-in station.